RMSS: Third Meeting

Research Methodology in Social Sciences

Dr. David Sichinava
September 18, 2018

Third Meeting

Today's plan

  • Lecture:
    • Research design
    • Literature review

Recap: Quantitative versus Qualitative

Quantitative თვისებრივი
The role of theory Deductivism: theory testing Inductivism: theory generation
Epistemology: Similar to social sciences, that is *positivism(s) Interpreativism

Purposes of research

  • Exploring
  • Describing
  • Explaining

Purposes of research

In your opinion, what methods would use exploratory, descriptive, and explanatory studies?

Logic of research

  • Nomothetic
  • Idiographic

Qualitative and quantitative research: issues of design

  • Linear vs. non-linear
  • Pre-planned vs. emergent

Qualitative and quantitative research: issues of design

Drawing

How does qualitative research speak?

  • Cases and contexts
  • Grounded theory
  • The role of context
  • Case and process
  • Interpretation
    • First order: point of view of the subjects
    • Second order: link to the context and get overall sense of collected data
    • Third order: interpret the results through general theories

How does quantitative research speak?

  • Hypotheses and variables
  • Causality
  • Hypothesis testing
    • Negation

Causal model of nomothetic science

  • Things must be correlated
  • Cause must take place before the effect
  • Variables should be non-spurious

Causal models in nomothetic analysis

Drawing

Causal models in nomothetic analysis

  • Hypothesis testing: remember those black swans
  • Statistical significance
  • No complete causation
    • Exceptional cases

Causal models in nomothetic analysis

  • Necessary and sufficient cases

Units of analysis

  • Individuals
  • Groups
  • Organizations
  • Social interactions
  • Social artifacts

Units of analysis: pitfalls

  • Ecological fallacy
  • Reductionism

Designing your research project

Drawing

Literature review: rationale

  • Demonstrate familiarity with a body of knowledge and establish credibility
  • Show paths of prior research and how your work fits in
  • Integrate and summarize the existing knowledge in the area
  • Learn from others and stimulate new ideas

Literature review: where to find it?

  • Google Scholar (Free!)
  • EBSCOHOST (Not free, not cheap)
  • Web of Knowledge (Not free, not cheap)

Literature review: how to search?

  • Refine your research topic and come up with keywords
  • Look for the relevant publications
  • Organize your bibliography
    • Zotero, Endnote, Evernote
  • Read and take notes
    • Zotero, Endnote, Evernote, Cornell note taking system, spreadsheets, annotated bibliographies
  • Write

How to write good literature review?

  • Read your literature critically
  • DO NOT make it just summaries of texts
  • Use inverted pyramid when writing: start with general theoretical background and finish with topic-specific discussions

Drawing